The Military's Monster
by alchemicmonkey
Summary: The corruption in the Amestrian military has no end! Edward and Alphonse get caught up in another whirlwind adventure when they meet a strange girl with amnesia. what is she and why is the military hunting her?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was very dark in Resembool, but that was expected because of the storm. Thick purple and grey clouds masked the sky, blocking the sun completely and casting a gloomy shadow upon everything. Cold rain fell in sheets that were being blown sideways by the equally cold wind, soaking anything and anyone who was outdoors, but everyone was cooped up inside, waiting for the storm to pass. Only one person was outside amidst the chilly rain and slicing wind, but she didn't care about that. She had to get away, very far away, because if they caught her, she would be locked up or worse. Warm red blood trickled down her forehead, mixing with the rain and getting in her eyes. She pushed her wet hair out of her eyes only to have it slither back into her line of view and stick to her pale skin. No one was outside, so nobody watched her slip in a mud puddle and strike her head very hard against the stone wall. She slipped into unconsciousness, the wind howling in her ears while more blood washed down her face and mixed with the rain and mud.

* * *

Winry Rockbell hurried outside, nimbly avoiding the large mud puddles scattered across the yard. She had ordered some equipment for automail, but hadn't been able to pick it up when it arrived yesterday because of the storm. She squinted her eyes as the sun glared down happily from the blue sky and turned towards the station. Her dog Den barked cheerfully at a bird passing by overhead and ran ahead. Soon, her barks turned into a warning. Winry sped up her pace and met the canine near the stone wall. She was barking at something lying in the mud. Winry approached slowly, unsure of what the 'thing' was. The mud was stained in the weirdest way, like someone had spilled blood on it and then mixed it up. The blond mechanic now saw that it was a person; a girl who was badly injured and covered in mud and dried blood. Forgetting about her new equipment waiting at the station, she picked up the girl and began carrying her home. She didn't weigh all that much, but Winry was strong after working on machines for so long so it didn't bother her.

"Back so soon Winry?" her grandmother, a small woman named Pinako asked.

"Well, I kinda got distracted…" Winry replied as she entered the house.

"Oh my. Where did she come from?" Pinako gasped when she saw the girl. She helped her granddaughter lay the girl out across the couch. Blood caked most of her face, but was really thick around her forehead. After sponging her face clean, the old woman saw a very large gash across most of her forehead.

"I found her by the side of the road. What should we do?" she asked.

"Well, first we should make sure that cut doesn't get infected and that no other parts of her are injured. We'll work out the rest later," Pinako ordered.

The girl was moved from the living room into a spare bedroom. Her clothes were tattered and stained with mud, blood dotting it here and there, but looked like they were some sort of hospital clothing. The girl didn't stir, even when the two women began stitching up her forehead. Just in case, they gave her a sedative. What caught Pinako's eye was the peculiar markings on the girl's hands, and a strange tattoo on her back. The wings of the tattoo were so lifelike that she thought she would pull away a feather if she touched them, but the markings on her hands were the most interesting: two identical transmutation circles, by the design of them, were carved into the backs of her hands.

"Winry, are Ed and Al still in Central?" she asked.

"Last I remember, yeah," Winry replied.

"Call them and tell them to come here as soon as they can. I think they'll want to see this," the old woman showed Winry the girl's hands. The blond nodded and ran to the phone.

* * *

Edward and Alphonse Elric walked into their apartment in Central City, dropping their groceries on the table. After the whole 'Shamballa' incident, they had managed to both close the permanent Gate and find a way back home. Edward had reapplied as a state alchemist and Alphonse was currently looking for a job, though he was also considering applying for a state alchemist's certification. Edward was still using automail, but Alphonse had his body back, so things were okay. The phone's ringing broke the easy silence. Alphonse, the one closest to it, answered.

"Hello?" he said into the receiver.

"Al? It's me," Winry's voice replied.

"Oh, hi Winry. What's up?" he asked, pleased to hear his old friend's voice.

"Look, uh… you and Ed need to come to Resembool. We have something here that we think you should see," she faltered a bit.

"Tell them that they need to come as soon as they can!" Pinako's voice called from somewhere in the background.

"I'm getting to that; calm down!" Winry barked. "So… yeah, I think you heard her. How soon do you think you can come?"

"Brother, how soon can we get to Resembool?" Alphonse asked, placing his hand over the mouthpiece.

"I dunno. I guess tomorrow we can leave…" he grimaced, looking at his automail. He had gotten in a fight the other day and it had gotten pretty banged up. He figured he should just go back for maintenance now and get it over with.

"We'll leave tomorrow," Alphonse replied, a wry grin on his face as he studied his brother's automail.

"Okay, see you when you get here. Oh, and tell Ed that if he messed up my automail again, he's going to pay. Bye!" Winry chirped then hung up.

"Might as well go select a cemetery plot…" Edward sighed, sitting down heavily in a chair. Alphonse laughed dryly.

* * *

Two days passed before the girl woke up. Den was keeping watch by the bedside when she stirred. She barked happily, announcing that the guest was awake. The girl panicked and scooted away, fear written plainly across her face.

"Den, what are you barking at?" Winry asked as she entered the room. Her face lit up when she saw the girl, then fell slightly when she saw how scared she was of Den's barking. "Shh, Den. That's enough!" she hushed the dog.

The girl relaxed a bit and looked at Winry. She then looked around the room, as if she didn't know where she was. She fingered the sheets of her bed and focused her attention on them. They were soft and a little warm. She brought it up to her cheek and rubbed the fabric against her skin. This thing was safe.

"How are you feeling?" Winry asked. The girl gave her a blank look. Winry cocked her head to the side and studied the girl, who mimicked the movement. The blond rightened her head and the girl did the same. "What's your name?"

Another blank look. Winry sighed. The girl copied that as well, and then smiled. She thought it was fun.

"Can you speak?" Winry asked. "Speak," she repeated, tapping her mouth.

"Spee-kk…" the girl repeated.

"Okay, let's try something else. I'm Winry," she pointed to herself. The girl pondered a bit before responding.

"Win… ree…" she repeated, trying the word out. "Winry!" she exclaimed, pointing to herself.

"No, no. I'm Winry," the blond corrected gently.

"Winry?" the girl pointed to her. She nodded and grinned.

"Good, you can speak, just not in sentences," Winry grinned. "I guess that means your memory has been erased… maybe that cut on her head… do you think she might've lost her memory when she got that cut?" she asked her grandmother, who had been standing by for the past few minutes.

"You said you found her by the wall. Maybe she slipped in the mud and hit her head on the stones. I guess we won't know until it returns," the old woman puffed on her pipe. "Bring her downstairs. Maybe we can get her to eat something."

Winry led the girl downstairs and into the kitchen. Den had fallen asleep near the foot of the stairs and the girl cringed in fear, hiding behind Winry.

"Are you scared of Den?" she asked. The girl whimpered. "It's okay; she won't hurt you," the blond bent down and ruffled the dog's ears, showing the girl that it was okay. She was hesitant at first, but eventually pet the dog, which remained perfectly still. "Can you say Den?"

"Den?" the girl repeated. The dog barked and she laughed. "Den!" she repeated as the animal licked her face.

"Can you say Pinako?" Winry asked. The girl paused, but still pet Den.

"Nako?" she tried.

"Pinako," Winry repeated.

"Pin-nako," she tried again. "Pinako?" she asked. Winry nodded and pointed to her grandmother.

"Pinako," she repeated, associating the word with the object, or rather person, to whom it belonged.

"Now that she knows our names, let's find one for her," the old woman grinned.

* * *

"I'm glad we left before that storm passed over Central," Alphonse sighed. Rainy weather always made him a bit gloomy, like most people. Besides, he much preferred the sunny landscape of his hometown.

"It's just a bunch of water; I don't see what the big deal is…" Edward grumbled. They trudged through the village, taking in the landscape. Nothing had changed, really, since they were last here. They picked their way to their friend's house, waving at the occasional neighbor who passed by. Soon, the yellow building they knew so well rose in the distance. As they walked closer to it, Edward clutched his right arm. Winry was going to kill him. But it wasn't his fault! The gang had jumped _him_. He was the victim and he had only acted in self-defense… well, he couldn't deny that he liked punching the lights out of each gang member. If only the leader hadn't had automail too…

"Can't say I feel sorry for you," Alphonse chuckled. "It's your fault for fighting them."

"Hey, they jumped _me_, not the other way around! Would you rather I fight back or crawl home battered, bloody, and probably semi-conscious?" he snapped. Happy barking alerted them and they looked up. Den was running around the front yard of Rockbell Automail while a figure, probably a girl because they could make out the skirt of a dress, chased after her. The dog turned, stopped, and then barreled for the brothers, barking for all she was worth.

"Hey Den!" Alphonse chirped. He half caught the dog and knelt down so she could lick his face.

"See you at my funeral…" Edward sighed, shuffling up the hill to the house. He noticed that the figure was gone, but shrugged it off. Perhaps she was a customer, or a relative or friend of one. "Hello? Winry? Aunt Pinako? We're here," he called, cautiously poking his head through the door.

"Hi, Ed!" Winry bounced into the room. "I'm so glad you two finally… what with that look?" she asked suspiciously.

"You're in trouble now, Brother," Alphonse snickered.

"You broke it, didn't you," she stated. Edward flinched. "You idiot! How can you keep doing this to me?! Do you know how hard I work on your automail?! I don't see how you can break it so easily!!" she threw any nearby object at the blond alchemist. He dodged everything save for a toolbox, which hit him square in the face.

"I'm sorry, but it really wasn't my fault this time!!" he screeched.

"Winry, who's that girl?" Alphonse interceded, pointing to further his question. Cowering behind the doorframe was a girl who was probably close to him in age (really, not physically, which meant she was probably around seventeen). She shrunk behind the wall hen she caught him looking at her.

"Oh, she's… the reason we called you up here," Winry sighed, smacking Edward on the side of his head before walking over to where the girl had been. "Its okay, Amaya. They won't hurt you," she coaxed the girl out into view.

Edward rubbed his head and sighed. The reason he came all the way up here was because of a girl? That… didn't make much sense.

"Amaya, this is Edward and Alphonse. Ed, Al, this is Amaya. I found her by the side of the road a few days ago. She was injured so we took care of her," Winry explained.

"Lemme get this straight… you found some random person by the side of the road and decided to take care of her?" Edward asked.

"She's lost her memory. In case you haven't noticed, she acts like a child though she looks to be around your age," Pinako said.

"Well, what do you want me to do? I can't restore her memory," Edward sighed.

"Sit down before I kill you," Winry ordered. Edward obliged and she began taking apart his ruined automail. Looks like he was going to be here for a while. He glanced over at Amaya, who was playing with Den. She had rather long black hair, almost as long as his, and pale skin. He tried to ignore the fact that her body was… well formed. She glanced up at him and studied him as Winry took apart his arm. Her silver eyes watched for a few moments before returning to Den.

"Actually, there's something you might want to look at," Pinako said. "Amaya, would you come over here please?" the girl nodded and walked over. "Take off your gloves," the old woman instructed. The girl shook her head and hid her hands behind her back.

"I know we told you not to take them off, but it's okay now. Ed and Al are going to try to help you get your memory back," Winry said gently. Amaya slowly brought out her hands and took off the black gloves. "Now show Ed your hands." She hesitantly held out her hands in front of Edward. He studied them closely.

"I'm not a palm reader," he drawled. Amaya turned her hands over.

"Circle," she said. He looked at her hands again. On the back of her hands were strange transmutation circles. He had never seen anything so… interesting: it was a standard circle, intricately inscribed with runes, but what caught his eye was the pair of wings protruding from a star. He had never seen a transmutation circle quite like that before, but what really bugged him was it was carved into her hands.

"It's a transmutation circle," Alphonse stated. Amaya hastily pulled her gloves back on and looked at the ground.

"I can see that. What's it for?" Edward asked. Both Winry and Pinako shrugged.

"We were hoping you could tell us, mister state alchemist," Winry replied. "Leg?" she demanded.

"M-my leg is fine! It was just my arm that got messed up!!" he floundered. Winry pursed her lips and pushed up his pant leg. That limb was fine after all. "Told ya," he grinned.

"Amaya, go play outside with Den, okay?" Pinako suggested. The girl nodded and ran outside, Den close on her heels.

"So where is she from?" Alphonse asked, sitting next to Edward.

"We don't know. She didn't have any identification or anything when I found her, and her memory's gone so she can't tell us," Winry sighed, draping the damaged prosthetic over her arm and walking away. Edward scratched the back of his head. "She wasn't even able to speak, though she has learned some words since waking up. Mostly names of people and a few objects. She can talk, but not in sentences."

"So her name's Amaya?" Edward asked.

"Well, that's what we call her, though I'm sure she has a real name," Pinako grinned. "She mostly just mimics what someone else does. That's how she learned what she knows now."

"Do you have even the slightest idea where she's from?" Edward grumbled. He didn't like this very much.

"Well, when Winry found her, she was wearing what looked like a hospital gown, so we're guessing she broke out and wandered off," the old woman answered.

"You're going off a 'guess'?" Edward asked sarcastically. "She could be a mass murderer for all you know!" something tugged his braid very hard and he yelped in pain.

"Mass murderer!" Amaya exclaimed. "She… could be… mass murderer!" she pointed at Edward and giggled.

"She thinks you're a girl," Alphonse snickered.

"You're a girl," she repeated. Alphonse laughed while Edward sighed. Life was going to get interesting again…

* * *

_A/N: okay, this is formerly _Catch Me As I Fall_, but i've deleted that story and re-vamped it so it's better. i have an actual plotline to follow now and things will make more sense (hopefully) R&R pleeeeeze!!_

_until chapter 2..._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Time did pass and Amaya spent more and more time with Alphonse, who actually had the patience to try to teach her words and such. Edward was busy enough wracking his brain for a possible answer to the question: what were those transmutation circles for? The girl had shown no sign of possessing alchemic abilities (hell, she could barely speak), so why would she have transmutation circles carved into her hands? It just didn't make sense. Alphonse relayed stories of Amaya's progress with language, but four days after the Elric brothers arrived in Resembool, something much unexpected happened.

"What are you doing?" a girl's voice cut through Edward's early morning stupor. He raised his head groggily to see Amaya standing near him, peering down at him with her slightly creepy silver eyes.

"I'm trying to wake up," he sighed as he raked a metal hand through his mussy hair. "Now if you don't mind I'd like it if you…" he paused and glanced at her.

"You'd like it if I what?" she asked.

"You… did you just…" he sat up straight and stared hard at her. "Did you just talk?"

"Naturally. Everyone talks, even you," she snapped.

"Okay, when did you develop a full syntax Amaya? Just yesterday you could barely form a complete sentence!" he cried, flabbergasted. What had happened to her and why did it kinda bother him?

"My name is Nyx, and I'd appreciate it if you addressed me as such," she replied curtly. "And I don't know. I only remember the past few days, nothing else really besides my name, which is Nyx. Don't forget that." Amaya or Nyx or whoever she was wandered off.

Nyx wandered up into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. Okay, so her ability to speak like everyone else had returned, along with the knowledge of her name. That was a start, she guessed. Everything else, what her last name was, where she was from, how she had gotten here, where 'here' was, and what she had been doing before she forgot all that remained a complete blank. She felt oddly empty inside, and a little more than less human. Normal humans had memories; they knew where they had come from and where they were going and why. Nyx didn't know any of that. She slowly slipped off a glove and traced the strange carving on the back of her hand with her middle finger while a thousand questions ravaged her brain. Who was she, really? Where was she from? Where had she been going? Why was she going? What made her leave? Where was she? Who were the people she had been staying with, really? More than just a grandmother and her grandkids, surely. What was she going to do next, apart from getting something into her rumbling belly? What was this strange urge to run, just run away as far as she could? What did she want to run from and why? Was she wrong, and was she actually running _to_ something? No, the feeling in her gut told her that it was a 'running away' urge, not a 'running to' urge. And of course there was the biggest question of all… what was for breakfast? It was not good to think on an empty stomach, because the harder you thought (or tried to think) the more you focused on the grumbling in your tummy and the further away you got from whatever you were trying to think about. She sighed and walked out into the hall, placing a hand over her stomach in hopes of muting the sounds seeping from it.

"Good morning, Alphonse," she greeted the younger Elric brother when he entered the room.

"Good morning," he replied. She waited patiently for his reaction. "Whoa!! You talked! I mean, you've always been able to talk, well, as long as I've known you, but you can talk like a normal person!" he exclaimed.

"How kind of you to notice…" she sighed as she brushed past him and into the kitchen. Her eye caught a photo that was resting on the table nearby. She picked it up and gazed at it. "Alphonse, why do you appear only a year younger than Edward in this photograph, but several years younger when I look at you now?"

"Edward tells me part of your memory has returned," Pinako said as she entered the room. Nyx nodded.

"That is correct, though it is merely my name. Sadly, I cannot recall anything prior to the past few days," Nyx replied.

"Why are you talking so formally? It's kinda creepy," Edward muttered.

"Why do you wear your hair long? It is simply how I function, nothing more nothing less," Nyx hissed. She turned and stormed into the kitchen.

"I think I liked her better when she couldn't talk," Edward sighed. Something sharp whizzed past his head, just barely missing his nose. He and Alphonse stared stupidly at the knife sticking in the wall.

"Do not think I cannot hear you," Nyx snarled as she retrieved the knife.

"I barely said that!" Edward protested. Nyx stared at him, her silver eyes boring into his tawny ones. He leaned in a bit to get a better look. Was it him or were her eyes… changing? Her pupils narrowed unnaturally and he thought he saw something flash behind them. She brought her hand up to his chest, letting it hover for a moment before pushing him, just barely grazing his shirt, and sending him flying across the room. He hit the ground and skid a bit, then just lay there.

"What's going on?" Winry demanded, barging downstairs. "Why are you on the floor, Ed?"

"I'm not… she pushed me!" he cried, pointing to Nyx.

"Right… so she pushed you and you wound up all the way over here?" the blond asked skeptically. Nyx darted over to her quicker than was humanly possible.

"I can send you across the room just as easily," she threatened in her ear. Winry reeled back a bit, staring at her in astonishment.

"You can talk in complete sentences!" she gasped. Nyx rolled her eyes. "How'd you do that, Amaya?"

"My name is Nyx, not Amaya. Keep that in mind," Nyx growled. She stepped backwards and watched her friends. Her eyes were acting… odd. Before, she just saw things like anyone else would, but now her eyes were, well, they were like machines. She could zoom in on something clear across the room and analyze it down to its base components and determine if it was a threat or not. All that information was displayed in her vision, though the others probably couldn't see it. Alphonse: harmless; Pinako: harmless; Winry: harmless; Edward: possible threat; the book on the table: harmless. She blinked hard and her vision went back to normal. Odd… definitely odd… and the way she darted up to Winry… that wasn't normal… Nyx was starting to get the impression that… well, that she might not be human, or at least fully human.

"Alright, that's enough," Pinako said before anything else could happen. Nyx sighed heavily and tucked her black hair behind her ears. She hoped that she'd get her memory back soon, because that strange 'flight or fight' feeling wasn't going away and she didn't want to get her new friends involved in… whatever she was running from. God… if only she knew what had landed her here! Then she could have something to do, at least… maybe she should find a hobby… her days were awfully long and boring, save for playing with Den and Alphonse, and they got tired after a while, unlike her, yet another thing that wasn't normal. Winry got mad when she entered the workshop, Pinako wasn't much fun unless she was yelling at someone (preferably not her), and Edward… she didn't like Edward very much. Maybe she should read or something, so she wasn't completely retarded when it came to the world around her. She browsed through the house and managed to find a history book. It was a start.

"Are you alive?" Edward's voice interrupted what felt like a few minutes later. She jumped and dropped her book. "Geez, what'd you do? Read every possible book in the house?" he asked, his golden eyes scanning the mess of books scattered around the main room.

"I was so busy downloading everything that I guess I lost track of time…" she admitted, scratching the back of her head. Downloading? That made her sound like a machine.

"Okay, don't stay up too late," he cautioned.

"How can it be late? It's only…" she glanced around, found a clock, then glanced outside, "Ten fifteen, p.m."

"If you say so. Good night," he yawned. Nyx waved, though he didn't see, and he loped upstairs. He paused halfway up the staircase. What was with that girl? She'd been acting strange ever since this morning. First, there was her sudden recall of her name and how to talk normally… then there was that push that was barely a touch but send him across the room… next was that inhumanly quick dash up to Winry… and now there was spending the entire day just reading, not even stopping to eat or use the bathroom, just reading… or 'downloading' as she put it. What an odd way to phrase 'reading'. Oh, and there was her seemingly endless energy. No matter what she did, she never seemed to get tired until she fell asleep. And he still couldn't figure out what was up with those carvings (he had stopped calling them transmutation circles, as she hadn't transmuted anything). Everything about her didn't seem quite normal…

* * *

"How can you not know where it went?!" Envy roared. "Its sister model is still here; why would that one just up and leave?!"

"I-I'm sorry…" a sorry looking man in a blue uniform replied, looking down at his well-worn black boots.

"As a general in the military, I expect better from you, Hakuro. Now get out there and start looking for it!" Envy raged. "Oh, never mind. Activate the sister model and send it out after the prototype."

"Yes…" Hakuro sighed. He had been blackmailed into working for a strange man… or maybe it was a woman… with green hair and serious anger management problems. Being that he was so intelligent, he had been put to work designing and construction 'the deadliest weapon imaginable because no one would suspect it'. Due to recent advances in technology and the automail prosthetics industry, he along with a team of subordinates had created what they called a 'battle android', or in plain English, a mechanical human. Using the special techniques used to connect nerves to automail, along with some of the prosthetics themselves, they had quite literally built a human weapon. It was the most advance piece of technology to date, but it all had to be kept secret. If anyone outside the direct subordination of Hakuro found out about this… there's be hell to pay. Especially if it fell into enemy hands.

Hakuro shuffled through the building where the androids were being built, named Laboratory 7 (how original, after what happened with Lab 5…) or more commonly known as The Factory. To him, it sounded a bit like a science fiction novel, but he was getting paid pretty well, so he kept his mouth shut. The sister model to the prototype that ran away shortly after being activated was locked away in the heart of The Factory. Multiple cords and wires attached to the android's body, many of them dangling from the ceiling so the thing was suspended a few feet off the ground. The doll had porcelain skin framed by platinum blond hair. Her eyes were solid black, though they appeared a steely grey on some light, and stared unblinking into nothing. Her frame was slight, the same as her sister model, but she was well proportioned, her body covered only by a flimsy and slightly pathetic excuse for a replica of a hospital gown. Carved into the back of her hands were transmutation circles. The doll, as most workers called it, would be able to perform alchemy if they either came into contact with a Red Stone, the Philosopher's Stone, or an alchemist of the highest caliber. She was the exact opposite of her sister model, or 'twin', as they looked exactly alike, save for the changes in hair and eye color.

The doll, dubbed Roxanne, was the model that they would actually put to use in combat. The prototype, the one that ran away, would be disposed of once it was found. There were too many bugs in that one's systems, which could probably be accounted for it's, malfunction and run away. Hakuro walked over to the doll and pressed the activation switch on the nape of her neck hidden beneath her skin. She whirred to life and glanced up at Hakuro.

"Good morning Roxanne. How are you today?" he asked politely.

"I'll feel better once I'm untangled from all this shit," she snapped. Hakuro nodded and began detaching the wires from her body. Her skin closed over the ports, making it so you never knew they were there. The doll could bleed and feel and whatnot, much like the Homunculus that helped make her. She was created from fusing Red Stones, an animal, and a human body that hadn't been dead long. Luckily, Envy had procured twins that died in an accident, which was partially why Roxanne and the prototype looked so similar, though they looked nothing like they did when they were normal humans. "Thank you."

"Roxanne, there's something we need you to do," Hakuro sighed. Roxanne set her onyx eyes upon him and sighed.

"I knew there was a reason you woke me up," she groaned. "What is it?"

"Well, your sister ran off and we need her back. You're the only one who can retrieve her quickly and quietly," he admitted.

"Really?" Roxanne asked, suddenly interested. She would get to see her little sister again. She licked her lips and grinned darkly. Hakuro forced himself not to cringe. "I'm going to need more suitable clothing."

"Right away, Roxanne," Hakuro replied. Pissing off Roxanne was one thing one would not want to do. Her animal part was Haast's Eagle, a vicious bird of prey (that was now extinct, though somehow she was able to have those genes put inside her), so making her angry would most likely result in an untimely death. Her sister model's animal was a Harpy Eagle, making her rather harmless, as far as they knew. She hadn't stuck around long enough to see how far she could be pushed before the animal was invoked and she attacked.

"I missed you so much, little sister…" Roxanne cooed, giggling darkly.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Pinako asked the next morning. Nyx turned around and smiled.

"Hunting," she grinned, pointing to the birds flying around in the sky.

"Why, pray tell?" the old woman asked. Nyx cocked her head to the side and thought.

"Instinct?" she suggested. "I do not really know. Something inside me is telling me to hunt, so I am."

"Alright, don't do anything stupid," the old woman sighed, taking a long drag from her pipe.

"I will not. Do not worry," Nyx smiled again. She returned her attention to the sky. A fat lark was soaring in circles almost neurotically, not going anywhere. She licked her lips hungrily and continued to stare at it. Something tugged at her back, causing slight waves of pain to ripple throughout her body. She heard the fabric of her shirt rip and felt something unfurl, though she paid no conscious attention. All she wanted was that obese lark. She quickly glanced around, ensuring that no one was watching. Then she promptly kicked off the ground and struck the lark, hovering in mid-air as she strangled it, clamping her teeth around its neck and snapping its fragile bones. She then descended to the ground and wiped her mouth clean. She felt whatever had unfurled vanish back into her back. She stared at the blood smeared on the back of her hand and wiped it on the grass. She would be satisfied after eating this, for a while at least. Nyx trotted back into the yellow house happily. She met Edward at the door.

"What's that?" he asked, eyeing the carcass in her hand.

"Breakfast," she replied, holding it up so he could see. He took one whiff and reeled backwards.

"I hope you're not going to share that; it reeks of blood!" he wheezed.

"It will be fine once it is cleaned and cooked. If that is what you like," she shrugged, plopping at the table and plucking feathers from the carcass. She watched as he watched her continue to strip the carcass of feathers, then put her mouth near the raw muscle. "I personally prefer it raw; the taste is much better," she grinned, licking the flesh. Edward slowly turned and left the room, though not a second later she heard him run away. She chuckled softly to herself and took the bird to the sink to wash it.

"She is not! Stop telling lies, Brother!" Al's voice appeared a few minutes later.

"No really, she had the thing in her mouth and was ready to eat it!" Edward insisted.

"Eat what?" Nyx asked, turning to face them. "Oh, the bird? I was joking, you know, though my comedy could use some refining." Edward looked ill at ease, while Alphonse just stared at him.

"Why is your shirt torn up?" Alphonse asked, approaching her and lightly touching the shredded fabric. Her wing tattoo was clearly visible through the remaining fabric. She flinched when his fingers raced it, and yelped in pain. All three were staring at a single black feather held between Alphonse's thumb and forefinger.

"What…?" Nyx asked, more than slightly confused.

"Just what… are you?" Edward asked softly.

* * *

_well, there's chapter 2. i hope you all are liking it. i'm going to be wrapping up Fa soon, so i'll have a bit more time to work on this and my other stories. and the nwe one i'm starting. i'll be posting the first chapter tonight, so keep an eye out for it._


	3. NOTICE!

**TEMPORARILY DISCONTINUED UNTIL THE GODSEND TRILOGY IS COMPLETED! I apologize, but that is my main project now and I don't really have the right state of mind to continue work on this at the moment.**


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